For a 3-D Design class project we were instructed to create a sculpture that gave focus to an outside and inside texture and to play up some kind of theme that would relate the two textures. For this sculpture I started with a wooden cylinder and cut it at a 45 degree angle and glued it back ontop of the original cylinder to give the mug a "slanting" feel to it. I then glued a wooden drawer handle to one of the sides and began covering the outside in staples of all shapes and sizes until there were was no wood grain showing through. The inside was completely covered in rubber bands, loose ones on the bottom and then curled ones as it got closer to the top of the mug.

As for the theme, I thought of my prior work at a corporate America insurance job and other corporate postions like it. Also, being a be a big fan of the NBC show, "The Office" at the time, I got the idea of creating an office mug that was silver in color like a stainless steel thermos, with the inside color of the rubber bands being the same color as coffee. I wanted to choose items that would commonly be found in a typical office setting as the materials for constructing the work. One thing I thought about during the construction of this sculpture was that coffee for many of us is a way to wind down or relax, especially when working in an office environment. However, take that away and replace your mug with one that is covered in sharp staple spikes containing an inedible beverage...